Coasting Real Slow

Jackson turned suddenly and pulled away from Paulette. There was so much about her that he didn’t understand.  He had thought he knew who she was and what she wanted with her life but as he glanced back at her, her skirt swinging lightly around her knees, the sun playing through her golden brown hair his stomach twisted and turned.  This was not someone he could just walk away from was it?  He knew that so much of their lives had been announced, determined, and foreordained from their first moments in this clearing in the glade.  He tore himself away, it would have to be something different, someone different and he turned to run, to the dark cool corner of the yard that lead down to the stream and out.

When you explore on bike you see things that you wouldn’t see in a car, including, especially other bikes.  This bike was back from the road almost completely hidden in the overgrowing rain forest.  I really liked the way that the curve of the wheel disappears into the ferns and other undergrowth to create a half circle.  The curve of the circle pulls the eye around and into the mysterious dark spot at the back of the frame.  I love it when an image has a little mystery, a hidden story.

iPhone Series # 1    iPhone Series # 2    iPhone Series # 3

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

Bike and Bricks

I struggled with this photo for quite a while.  I loved the curve and shape of the bike, (1) the fact that the handlebars have tassels, (2) the fact that both tires are too flat to ride, (3) the battered old seat (4).  All of these things were great but the bike was a mottled rusty dark green against an orange brick wall and it just didn’t have the punch that I felt the image needed.  Recently I have gone back through some of my images with the intent of reevaluating my images with  a B&W treatment in mind.  I liked it much better this time around.  I really wish I had taken the time to move the potted tree outside of the frame.

-Russell Berg

Bicycle Peace

An old bicylce I found tucked in a corner in the Hindu temple complex at Tanah Lot in Bali. DiMAGE Z10 9mm at f/3.2 1/60 ISO 80

The old man tottered out of the house and found his bicycle leaning against the wall.  He mounted the ancient conveyance and slowly pushed off into the traffic.  His knees creaked as his feet found their way around the pedals for the first few times but slowly he picked up speed and soon he began to feel a cool breeze on his face that pushed away the heavy air he had been breathin.  He knew that one day he would have to stop, that one day his body would no longer let him continue.  But this was not that day.

My family and I were wandering around the temple complex at Tanah Lot and the crowd of tourists was and couvenir sellers was pretty formidable.  There was a man with a really large python charging for photos with it and it was all quite antithetical to the idea of a quiet place of worship.  I poked my head around a corner and found this wonderful bicycle propped into the corner and it was beautiful and quiet.  It was all by itself and no one was paying it the least bit of attention.  I loved it.  I loved the texture of the metal frame and torn worn seat.  I loved the piece of bamboo tied to the rack.  I loved the large car mirror urused* on to the handle bars. I loved the partially inflated tire and the battered pedals.  I loved this bike for all that it was and for all that it was not in this noisy busy place.

-Russell Berg

*urus: to cobble something together, to come up with a non-traditional solution, to find a way to fix something.  It is one of my favourite Indonesian words